22 Oct 2020/Zack Kramer

The Prague Security Studies Institute continues its PSSI Perspectives, regular short memos on select security-related topics. 

The third PSSI Perspective, entitled "The International Investment Bank's Move to Budepast Czechs, other EU Members Funds Russian Trojan Horse Scheme".

Despite ongoing EU-wide sanctions against Russia, the Hungarian government has welcomed the International Investment Bank's decision to relocate its headquarters from Moscow to Budapest. A former COMECON joint development project, the IIB was resurrected in 2012 for the ostensible purpose of boosting economic growth in its 9 member states, which include the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The bank's legal status, however, as an unregulated, non-taxable international organization, together with suspicious operations, raises concerns that its true mission is to advance Russia’s malevolent strategic aims. In this PSSI Perspective, Zack Kramer explains what makes the IIB relocation a threat to EU economic and national security.